Ready for hurricane season

 

I know we are half way through the season already, but I finally got the accordion shutters I wanted for the back porch.  For a long time I been thinking about getting shutters to enclose the back porch of the house.  I have regular shutters for all my windows, the benefits of accordion shutters for the porch are, one it gives me a place to store loose garden items during a storm, and second it protects the roof during a strong hurricane.   It forces the high winds to go around the house and not into the porch, during hurricane Andrew, many houses in Miami loss their roofs because of unprotected porches.

 

To make room for the shutters, my Areca palm had to go.  I hate when I have to get rid of a favorite plant, the Areca gave the garden a tropical look. 

 

 

 

 

I purchased a Glory Bush (Tibouchina lepidota) to replace the Areca palm.  This is my second Glory bush, I had one in a pot and it died in our extreme summer heat.  I hope this one does better in the ground.

 

I love the purple flowers, according to the description, the small tree can grow up to 10 feet and in my zone 10 climate it can flower year-round.  This plant is also butterfly friendly, a major plus in my book.

 

This Zanzibar croton was an added bonus, it was screaming take me home. (I had the perfect pot for it, a $1 garage sale find)

One month to go in the peak of 2013 hurricane season, and all is quiet.  Let’s keep our fingers cross.

Come and take a tour of my front garden.

This morning after sunrise the light was perfect for taking pictures.  Before I had time for a cup of coffee and wearing my pajamas I took my Nikon camera to the street to photograph the front garden (I did get a few strange stares from my neighbors) but as you know photography is all about the light.

I moved this birdbath from the back to the front yard.  I like the way it looks in the middle all the flowers.

The ground orchids are benefiting from all the rain lately.

I trimmed hard this Scarlet Red Cloak about a month ago and it took less than 30 days to get flowers again.  This plant usually blooms in late fall early winter, but this year I had blooms all year long.  

 

Thryallis are one of my favorite flowers in the garden.  Yellow flowers and light green leaves makes for a stunning combination.  This plant is easy to take care, relatively pest free and it comes back every year no matter what.  I have several throughout the garden.

Crown of Thorns thrive in sunny areas of the garden.

This noisy Blue Jay visited the garden today.

I worked on my vegetable garden this weekend, unfortunate our rainy season continues and is making planting impossible for now.

How do you tell is Fall in South Florida?

Labor Day in the garden

Today I celebrated Labor Day by spending the day working in the garden.  After two months away, is going to take some time to bring everything under control.  Today I filled out three garbage containers of cuttings and weeds.  (I have a couple of more days to go)

 

I relocated my St. Francis statue to the back of the garden and I was rewarded with all these rain lilies. (Someone up there liked the move)

 

Firebush (Hamelia Patens) this plant is not the best looking plant in my garden and the flowers are nothing to talk about, but if you want to attract butterflies and bees this is the one.

Firebush is native plant to South Florida and is popular with landscapers, the plant is aggressive and needs trimming a couple of times a year, but it blooms most of the year.